Bad people or Bad Choices?

Many ex offenders or, ex felons suffer from collateral damages that keep them from finding a job, housing, and voting long after they have paid their debt to society. Along with these struggles of just attaining everyday life necessities they must also deal with the stigma that comes attached after they have left prison. People all throughout our culture wanna judge and stigmatize those who have had to serve time. Many of them (not all) who are or were serving time for non-violent crimes. Society has decided to label them as bad people instead of perhaps looking at it like they might have just made some bad choices and done some bad things. This labeling that society has put on those who have served time or look to serve time has just recently been something I can relate too.

Over the summer I met a guy who I was really into. He was your typical all American 21 year old guy, nothing too out of the ordinary he seemed like a pretty uncomplicated safe guy ,not someone that a person should be concerned about. So we started to hang out over the summer and naturally my mother got curious about who he was and what kind of things he was into, so instead of asking me she went and asked my uncle to find out more about him. My uncle ran a search through the Iowa Courts online and found out that he had himself a lenghty list of offenses one that stuck out though was a drug charge that he had gotten right before we had met, more too that he is looking at facing time in prison. As you can imagine this became a real issue for my family and friends.

After finding all of this out is when I really noticed that my family like society was assuming he was a bad guy and not so much that he did a bad thing. It became almost like a joke with my family, every time they would see me someone would make a joke or a remark about him and how he was nothing but a "drug mule" they would call him things like "Kilo" and go on saying things like well if he is going to prison hes a horrible guy and his life is going nowhere and they even had the audacity to start saying things like "well ya know if she stays with him she is going to be nothing more than a beaten pregnant and barefoot in the kitchen, that's assuming a criminal like him would even be able to get a house."

Now for me sitting there listening to that I'm thinking to myself now why is it that you guys are associating every Offender and Felon with domestic violence, poverty and ignorance. Then it occurred to me that it is just all part of the stigma associated with those who have committed crimes. Society will always look at them as though they are nothing and worthless because they made a mistake, don't get me wrong there are certain crimes that yes are almost too unforgivable, but for those who have not committed violent crimes and have paid their time why is that society is never going to let them become something and try to learn and better themselves from what they used to be. Could society maybe for one second just think that there maybe that chance that these offenders and felons might not all be BAD PEOPLE just people who made some bad mistakes?